Introducing the official mascot of the Human Proteomics Organizations!

I've got a lot going on and I've had to take a step back on a lot of things, including the amount of service that I do. Don't worry, the US HUPO VMO is in great hands with Pratik Jagtap and Jordan Burton taking over as chair and vice chair, respectively. I'll still pitch in as part of the coolest committee in all of the Human Proteomics Organization's respective histories.

The last thing I get to do is announce that the HUMAN PROTEOMICS ORGANIZATIONS now have an offical mascot. I've led this important initiative almost completely on my own. It is the least I could do. 

Introducing - 

THE HUPO HOOPOE! (Specifically the African Hoopoe, or Upupa africana)

(Image above generated by the DeepDreamAI. I pay for a subscription, you can use it, but the ones at the bottom are the official logos!) 

A lot of thought went into selecting this majestic animal to represent the prestigious HUPO and US HUPO organizations, but check out the number of boxes that this one ticks off!

1) It nests in dark holes or caves! Just like most proteomics people stuffed in basements because once-upon-a-time mass spectrometers needed big magnets and that made sense. And now it's convenient for real scientists who would rather prefer that proteins (and especially mass spectrometrists) aren't a thing! 

2) When they are out of their caves they make a lot of noise! You can listen to HUPO HOOPAE sounds at this YouTube video!

3) The Hoopoe have majestic crowns upon their heads, which....hmmm....it can't match every characteristic. 

4) All animals (and even bacteria) avoid these, not just because they're saying "transcript numbers have no relationship whatsoever to the amount of protein around" over and over again, but because they smell very very bad. 

5) Perhaps most importantly, things don't bug HOOPAE, particularly not within their caves. They have evolved not only the unique passive defense mechanism mentioned in 4, but they also have unique active defense mechanisms! More details on those here! 

Here are some of the new official HUPO logos. These will also be available on the official US HUPO and HUPO websites soon, but you can download them directly here. 100% reusable art. I actually generated the vector image myself with no AI. 

Admittedly the "action logos" have been somewhat more controversial, but evolution is responsible for the development of our mascot's unique defense mechanism! I just pointed out the obvious. 

I'll put up a folder later. I'm currently just adding the new art as I generate it. 

Microsoft Designer is going all out to help!